Blizzard of 2015

Well, it turned out that the blizzard at Glen Hill Farm was lovely! I was getting really nervous beforehand because of the media calling it "historic" and all that nonsense. Why do they do that? It's really kind of mean. Honestly, I was most afraid that we'd lose power. In our old neighborhood, we lost power once (that Halloween storm a few years ago) for about 4 days, and that was pretty miserable. It was literally colder inside my house than it was outside, we lost all our food, blah, blah, blah. So I was dreading a similar experience. But we were pleasantly surprised that we kept our power the whole time this storm! Woohoo! I love a snow storm when we have power! I cooked a bunch of yummy food while Jonathan broke in the brand new plow for our tractor, and the kids and dogs played in the snow. The chickens chose to stay in their coop, and they seemed perfectly happy in there since I occasionally scattered chicken scratch all around to keep them busy. Two thumbs up for the Blizzard of 2015!

I can tell that Spring is on its way because the hens are starting to lay more eggs! Yay!
Even Penelope and Daffodil have started laying again. (Dark brown egg & green egg).
Penelope hadn't laid an egg since Halloween! 

Okay, this was taken during the storm BEFORE the blizzard.
A giant branch from our big pine tree came crashing down onto our ramp leading into the barn.
I was in the the chicken coop when it happened, and I have to tell you, it scared the living daylights out of me.
I walk up and down that ramp about 20 times a day. It easily could have squashed me if my timing was off.
And we recently had the trees pruned, so I wasn't expecting this! Yikes!

I do love winter. So pretty.
Maybe it's just a little too long. Cut off a month or two and it would be perfect.

This was the chickens' view of the storm from inside their coop.

Ryan heading off to play in the snow.

We have a loooong driveway to plow.
Nice work, Jonathan!

Jessie keeping warm

Cooper keeping warm

The downside to having a male dog living with us.
Cooper needs to mark every snowbank he finds in our yard, ruining my beautiful white snow. Blech :(
In case you weren't sure, this is Cooper's house. At least according to Cooper. See how he has marked it as HIS?
Don't eat the yellow snow.
Ben & Ryan came inside and said that they built a snowman.
I said, "Look again, you actually made a peeing post for Cooper." Yup, Cooper peed all over it. Lovely.
Girl dogs rule. They pee down, only when they need to pee. None of this marking craziness! :)

Snow buddies 

Jessie loves the snow!

Jonathan snow-blowing out some of the chicken run.
In a chicken hat, of course.

Traffic jam on the chicken coop steps due to mealworms.

Penelope sat on my foot, so I gave her a ride.
She liked it.  

Once I laid down some hay and sprinkled the mealworms in it, the girls ventured out for a bit today.
They definitely prefer walking on the hay, not the snow.

Here's a video of the dogs playing in the snow so you can see how much snow we got over here. Keep in mind it wasn't done snowing yet. The snow was so light and fluffy! Click on link here: Jessie & Cooper enjoying the blizzard 2015

Another video to share... While checking in on the hens during the blizzard, I happened to catch Daffodil laying an egg. Click on link here: Daffodil Laying An Egg

In other farm news, I discovered that the sink in the barn had a crack in it. Since I use it everyday, that is not a good thing. But I bought some epoxy thinking that I might be able to just fill in the crack? Success! This morning I mixed up the epoxy, filled in the cracks and voila! This afternoon, I have a leak-free sink. Keeping my fingers crossed that this solution lasts a while.

Also, update: Happy to report that Cooper's sore on his shoulder has totally healed. Phew! One less trip to the vet for the most-expensive-free-dog-ever is always a good thing. :)

Fire & Ice

FIRE & ICE

Fire & Ice

FIRE

This might sound a little strange, but Jonathan has always wanted to light our Christmas tree on fire after the holidays. So this year, since we have the room to do it "safely", he finally got the chance. While I watched from inside with the dogs, phone in my hand ready to call 911, my tallest child (my husband) set our tree afire. My (actual) kids were out with Daddy, of course, but they were smart enough to be standing back holding fire extinguishers, instead of being up close with their cameras like Jonathan. Now, I expected the tree to burn somewhat easily, but I was not expecting the blazing inferno that ensued. Take a look for yourself. (Click on the link: 2015 lighting of the Christmas Tree!!) Now since he named the video "2015 lighting of the Christmas Tree!!", that tells me that he clearly is planning to do this in 2016, 2017, etc. Pray for us. I think this experience just may inspire me to go buy a lovely non-flammable fake tree for next year.


ICE

Brrrr. It's getting cold out there! Really cold. So, chickens are not big fans of snow. And I can't say I blame them. I happen to like snow myself, but that's because I have boots and hats and mittens. Believe it or not, my chickens do not have boots. (yet? maybe I should invent that?) And I'm sure walking on cold, wet snow does not feel very good to their bony little feet. Only one of our chickens seemed to like the snow: Buttercup, our big fluffy Buff Orpington. She was walking all around, leaving her tiny little tracks everywhere. It was very cute actually. Eventually, Minerva Louise joined her in the snow, but that was it. The rest of the ladies weren't coming out that day. They spent the whole day in their coop, peeking out the door. Actually, I shoveled a small path and threw down some chicken scratch and then they all ran out. But as soon as the treats were gone, the rest of them ran back inside.

Buttercup and her cute little tracks.
Clearly, she's an artist.

Minerva Louise ventured out a bit, too.
Can you see the rest of the hens at the door watching?

Gertrude looking out, wondering why on earth anyone would step in that cold, white stuff? Brrrr.

I was worried about the chickens being cold with the temperatures going so low at night, as we do not heat their coop at all. So the other night I went out to the coop to see how they were doing. Happy to report that they were just fine. When they are sleeping on the roosts, they completely cover up their feet with their feathers. When I felt their feet, they were really warm! I was also worried about Minerva Louise's comb getting frostbitten because she has the biggest comb (the red crest on the chickens' heads) of all the chickens, but her comb felt nice and warm, too. So, so far so good.
Tonight though, where the temps are going to dip below zero, I just may put up their heat lamp from their chick days to help them get through the bitter temps.

Here they are at night on their roosts.
This picture is taken from below, see how you can't see their feet at all?
They are tucked under all their feathers, staying nice and warm.

Cooper and Jessie enjoyed the snow. They had fun stepping on the thin ice in the riding ring. Cooper is a little sensitive to noise, so the crackling sounds made him jump most times, but he seemed to be having fun. I love that my tough looking dog is the real wimp, and my wimpy looking dog is the brave one. Too funny. He also tried to eat some of it. Mmmm, sandy ice. Sounds delicious! Here's the link to see them play: Dogs Playing with Ice.

My Flamingo chickens. When the hens finally came out into the snow this morning, I caught them standing like flamingos, (or are they doing tricky tree yoga poses?), trying to keep at least one foot warm. Good for them. Smart chickies.

One-footed Buttercup

One-footed Daffodil.
She's finally done molting!
Looking good, Daffodil!

UPDATE:

Speaking of Daffodil, she's still the odd man out. :( The picture below is of all the chickens sleeping at night on their nice, long roosts with room for everyone on the top roost. But oh, there's Daffodil on the roost below everyone else. Sigh.

Don't tell anyone, but some nights when I go out to check on them, I'll actually move Daffodil up onto the top roost. I'm hoping that if they wake up with Daffodil on the top roost maybe they'll think she's one of them now and be nicer to her. And maybe it will give Daffodil more confidence in herself. Yes, I'm totally over thinking this and must stop. :)

ANOTHER UPDATE:
By the way, I figured out what kind of birds nest Jessie brought me the other day. It seems to have been an Oriole's nest! Pretty cool! I had seen a few orioles in our yard this summer and they are beautiful. Hope they build a new nest this year.

What a year!

WHAT A YEAR!

Were you a good girl this year, Jessie?
YES, you were a very good girl!

Cooper, look! Santa brought you your very own raccoon!
(Yep, this one didn't last long either.)

What? Doesn't everyone order ornaments that look just like their chickens?
No? Just me? Hm.
(I love Etsy.com)

New Year's Eve. What a great year it's been on Glen Hill Farm. So many firsts for us we're grateful for it all. Looking forward to see what 2015 has in store for us all!

What's been going on here this week? It may have been a great year, but this week has brought us lots of worry....

Because Cooper is doing his best to earn the title of "the most expensive free dog ever" we have been back to the vet many times this month. In fact, when I call the vet's office these days, they answer by saying "What's going on with Cooper now?" It's pretty funny. If only it weren't so expensive. Hoping to get a frequent flyer discount of some sort? Oh well.

So, a while ago, Cooper had a bump appear under his skin. No big deal, Jessie is a bumpy-ish kind of dog, too, so I wasn't alarmed, knowing that Jessie's have all been harmless, nothing to worry about. But a few weeks ago, Cooper's bump opened up, creating a sore about the size of a dime. I kept my eye on it, and when it wasn't healing on its own, I took him to the vet. Long story short, after 2 weeks of antibiotics, he still has this sore. Just when you think it's almost healed, he scratches off the scab and we're back to an open wound. Yuck. Luckily it doesn't seem to bother him. Today is looks pretty good. Keeping my fingers crossed that he doesn't scratch it. I'll give it a day or two more, and then sadly, I think we'll be heading back to the vet.

See Cooper's sore on his shoulder?
He's had it for about 3 weeks now. Hoping it will heal soon.

Cooper's sore

Also, last week, when I picked the dogs up from the kennel, they let us know that they saw worms in Cooper's poop. (Insert gagging noises here.) Worms, for me, falls into that category of mites, lice, etc. I just can't stomach the idea. Blech. I had no idea that he had worms! Truth is that because of their electric fence, I just let the dogs run out in the morning on their own, so I rarely see their poop until I go to pick it all up (which probably happens once a week because they poop out in areas of the yard that we don't use much.) Good news is that I learned that worms are actually a pretty easy fix. One pill usually does the trick. Poor Jessie had to take the medicine, too, just in case. Kind of felt like I was punishing her for her brother's bad behavior, but what can you do? Better safe than sorry. Cooper acted very strange the night we gave him his worm medicine. He barely slept and was kind of running around the house all night long. I'm wondering if it was a side effect? He was fine the next day. (The rest of us were exhausted, but he was fine!)

Since we're on some gross topics anyway, here's what's been going on with the chickens...

Egg production has slowed waaaay down here at Glen Hill Farm. Most days we are lucky to get 2 or 3 eggs a day now that we are in the dead of winter (as opposed to 6 or 7 eggs a day in the summer.) And actually, we're lucky to get 2 or 3 because many chickens stop altogether in the winter. But we have one chicken who has never missed a day laying. She's amazing. She's our smallest hen and yet she lays the largest eggs, every single day. Any guesses on which hen it is?

It is our white leghorn, Minerva Louise! She has given us one beautiful white egg every day since she started laying. Really, if I were to add to our flock, I would definitely get more white leghorns. She's great. HOWEVER, this past week, we had some pretty upsetting occurrences when we went to eat her eggs. I have gotten in the habit of cracking our eggs first into a tiny bowl before adding it to whatever recipe or to the pan on the stove. And this is why... When I cracked open Minerva Louise's egg (she's the only hen that lays white eggs so I know it's hers) it was very bloody inside. I'm not talking a speck of blood just on the yolk, I'm talking the entire white part was red. Yuck! It was pretty gross! And very upsetting to see! (pictures below if you can stomach it.) I know that a small blood speck is totally normal, but this was such a large amount of blood that I was really worried. After researching, I learned that because she seems healthy otherwise, it is probably nothing to worry about. Same cause for the small blood speck as it is for the larger blood situation: Most likely caused by a burst blood vessel in the hen while the egg was being formed. Not a cause for concern. I am happy to report that the next egg just had a small speck of blood, and then today's egg was totally healthy. Phew! By the way, this proves that those little blood spots are NOT the beginnings of a chicken embryo like some people believe since our eggs are definitely not fertilized.

So, if you've ever received a carton of Glen Hill Farm eggs, or any fresh eggs from a local farm, I would recommend cracking them into a separate small bowl first! While the small blood specks aren't harmful, and can be used no problem, I definitely wouldn't eat the one that was really bloody. I read that the large egg factories have special machinery that can detect these eggs with blood spots and remove them. Sadly, Glen Hill Farm doesn't own that fancy machinery yet! :) So please, let me know if you've ever received an egg from us that has had blood specks in it, or didn't look right for whatever reason. I would want to know if it was a common occurrence.

Here are the gross pictures...

VERY bloody egg. So upsetting. :(

Blood speck on yolk. Kinda yucky, but not too bad.

Yay! Minerva Louise's eggs are back to normal! Phew!

COLDER WEATHER...

The chickens seem to be doing well with this cold winter weather. They like to huddle together outside in a sunny corner. I also give them extra chicken scratch on really cold days. Keeps them active and eating it helps them stay warmer. Happy to report no frostbite yet.

Cuddling up together in a warm sunny corner

Jessie loves the winter! I call her my polar bear. Doesn't mind the cold and loves the snow! She's also a really big fan of stealing mittens and hats off the kids! Winter is fun for her.

My sweet polar bear loves the snow!
(This photo is from last winter, we haven't gotten this much snow yet this year.)

Cooper on the other hand, does NOT like the winter. He comes out with me in the morning to take care of the chickens, and within minutes he's barking to get back in the warm house. Poor guy. He has a very thin coat of fur, so he's probably legitimately cold. (He's totally that guy that looks big and tough, but he's actually a total wimp. LOL!) I'm not a big fan of people putting clothes on their dogs, but it was looking like Cooper actually needed a little something for him to be able to stay outside with me each morning. So, I broke down and got him a little coat to help him out. And it definitely helps him stay out much longer. I have to admit he does look kinda cute in it. Bonus is that I put it on Jessie on rainy days and it keeps her coat drier. (She takes forever to dry.)
Cold days for Cooper. Rainy days for Jessie. Win/Win.

Jessie brought me this birds nest today. I'm not sure what kind of bird it belongs to. (We have so many different kinds of wild birds in our yard, it's awesome.) Anyone know which kind of bird makes a nest like this? The crazy thing is that I swear that the inside of the nest was made with my hair! It was kind of crazy to see, it is exactly like my hair. You know when you clean out your brush and you throw away that handful of hair? I'm wondering if that's what happened? Maybe, or maybe not, but I'm totally going to toss the next brush cleaning of hair into the woods for the birds instead of the trash next time.

Quick trip to NYC this past weekend and my boys couldn't resist these hats.
You can take the boys out of the country,
but you can't take the country out of the boys.

Thank you Grandpa & Grandma
for taking such good care of your
grand-chickens!

Grandpa loves to give out treats to all his grand-pets!

Reunion

It has only been 2 months since the ponies went back to their home, but my family couldn't wait to see them again. Also, they live in the beautiful Woodstock, Vermont area which I had never been to and really wanted to see it in the height of its Christmas glory. So we loaded up the car and started our reunion road trip!

It wasn't really that simple, of course... Packing all the winter gear, arranging chickens sitters (thanks again Grandma & Grandpa!), dogs off to the kennel, blah, blah, blah...

We had THE BEST time! Our reunion with Meghan and Aisling was great. As soon as we saw each other there was whinnying and prancing around! (Actually, that was just from me, I was a little over-excited.)

The ponies very nonchalantly glanced up at us from their hay and gave us a small nod as if to say "Hey." (See what I did there? hay/hey. Pure poetry here, my friends.) Anyway, the ponies looked up and saw us and.... they went right back to eating their hay.

Guess our surprise appearance could not compete with their morning hay, and I totally get that. No worries. I was just happy to be hanging out with them again.

"Hi Girls!!!!"

"Oh, hey."
Can't you just feel their excitement? LOL :)

But yes, after the hay was finished, we got some great snuggles in! :)

Oh my sweet Meggy!

Ben & Ryan scratching Aisling's fuzzy winter coat.

Emily getting some Aisling love.

It turned out that seeing Meghan and Aisling was just one of the amazing things we did on this road trip. We did so many fun things that we couldn't decide just what was our favorite activity. We got to meet Meghan's other daughters, Avoca and Finola (Finny). We also met Avoca's daughter (so Meghan's granddaughter), who is the youngest pony on the farm named Aoife (pronounced Eef-ah.) All beautiful Connemara Ponies. All girls!

Even Jonathan couldn't resist petting Meghan (with gloves on, darn allergies.)
Ryan was getting some love from Avoca.
Aisling is in the background waiting her turn.

Susan (their owner) took this picture of Finny and Aoife snuggling.
Aren't they just beautiful?

Aoife peeking into the barn on a snowy morning.
Love how her white chin whiskers are glowing against her chocolate coat.

We also fell in love with their rescue dog, Roscoe, who is basically a small pony himself.
105 pounds of pure black lab love. (His papers say all black lab, but someone must have snuck a great dane in there somewhere!) :)

And of course, there was sweet Maddie, too...

Ryan & Maddie

Yes, we'll invite ourselves over to your house and then lie down on your kitchen floors with your pets. Sorry. Ryan also did this with their adorable cat, Georgina.

So grateful to Susan, David, Brittany and D2 for letting us come visit their beautiful farm. What a fun weekend. Amazing food, charming towns, beautiful scenery, sleigh rides, snowmobile rides, dogs, cats, cows and of course the ponies! They're lucky we actually went home, because we really just wanted to move in! :)

Susan & David

Brittany was so good to us coordinating our activities
and showing us all Woodstock has to offer.

Dashing through the snow, on a TWO horse open sleigh!
O'er the fields we go, laughing all the way. Ha! Ha! Ha!

Thank you to Dancer and Duke for pulling our sleigh.
And thank you to the driver, Chip, for letting us sing that song
even though he had heard it, oh, about a million times that day.

Okay, the ponies may have been my highlight,
but snowmobiling may have been the boys' favorite activity.
(Just don't tell the ponies.)

We loved our B&B! Perfect location, great rooms and delicious breakfasts! Thank you, Barbara!

Quiet neighbors

Moo

The horse treats smelled so good, we thought we'd try them. They were pretty tasty, actually!

Basically sweet granola with peppermint. (It was just a nibble. We're just a little bit crazy.) 

More pictures, just because....

Sleigh Rides...

Come on, just gorgeous! Love the sun on the horses.

In Woodstock center...

Giant Gingerbread House at the Woodstock Inn

Gorgeous fireplace at the Woodstock Inn.
David cuts those amazing 4 foot logs especially for the inn.

Fun pinball machines at the arcade in the Woodstock Inn.

Cute mannequins at the Woodstock Flannel Co.

Back on the farm....

A perfect snowy Vermont day

A-Z!

This face gets me every time.

So great to see these two again!

Thanks again to Susan & David & Brittany for their hospitality!